the globe says
Bolivia
Fly to Sucre via La Paz, then a spectacular three-hour bus to the highest city of its size on Earth, at 4,090 meters.
A colonial courtyard hostel near the mint — bring warm layers, always.
The mountain that bankrolled the Spanish Empire and consumed millions of lives. The Casa de la Moneda mint, silver-choked churches, and miners still working the Cerro Rico.
The mint museum first, for the history — then decide soberly whether to take a cooperative mine tour, which is real, moving, and not for the claustrophobic.
April to October
Gracias, caserita — thank you, with the market honorific.
Open Veins of Latin America by Eduardo Galeano — begins, in spirit, inside this mountain.
The Salar de Uyuni, four hours away — the mirror-flat salt world, best in wet season.
The altitude is serious — acclimatize in Sucre first. Mine tours carry genuine risk; choose miner-run cooperatives if you go.